Eden

Eden

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Dalibor Talajić

Coloured by Valentina Briški

Lettered by Marshall Dillon

Tattoo artist Niles lives his life in a kind of daze. Minute after minute, he muddles through the repetitive moments of his job, his life and his guilt. All that changes when Eden walks through the doors of the tattoo shop. She’s looking for something...different...and she finds it with Niles. But Eden is a woman surrounded by deep mysteries...not the least of which is how and why her new tattoos vanish after only a few days. As Niles learns more about Eden, he is driven to fathomless depths of both love and horror.

What an interesting book this is. First I love the oversized magazine style format of this and that it seems to be making something of a comeback I’m all for it. For a one-shot I gotta say this surely ignites the imagination and leaves me wanting to have had so much explored. Then again that’s what Cullen does, he writes amazing stories that fall somewhere in the realm of the Twilight Zone that captures your imagination and engages you in ways that few other seem to have mastered.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. From the moment she walked through the door he knew she was going to be trouble. The second time well I would’ve probably freaked out a bit all things considered but gotta hand it to the character development here because it’s incredibly strong. How we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter alongside the dialogue as well as the character interaction in its entirety is so well orchestrated. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we’re caught up in this bizarre world full of intrigue.

I really do like the way that this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story having this whole cause and effect dynamic to them. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

The interiors here are gorgeous. The linework is super solid with these nice crisp, strong lines that make up this sensational detail work. While the imagery for the tattoo’s we see show this amazing creativity and imagination that makes the colour work even more truly impressive. The way we see faces and facial expressions are done so that they further the characterisation is beautifully done. The backgrounds we see are more judiciously utilised but we get some great depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective show a stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous! With the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work especially within the tattoo’s is phenomenal stuff. That two page spread where Niles spies on Eden yeah that’s absolutely incredible.

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While I am somewhat disturbed by how this issue ends and what he did to Eden well I find it unforgivable. Still what anyone would do when faced with an impossible decision and more so when that someone is filled with grief to such a degree as we see. Still this is one of those incredibly interesting and fascinating looks at human nature that comes from an unexpected place. Crazy, interesting, engaging and full of this amazing imagery this is what we all want to read.